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‘The Adventures of the Son of Exploding Sausage’: ‘Lost’ Bonzo Dog Band film found again
06.19.2015
09:31 am
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I think it was Liza Minnelli’s bright-eyed character Eliza in Albert Finney’s film Charlie Bubbles who noted that all the pleasure in life when collected together would probably only fill a thimble when compared to all the dull, beige and unhappy moments that weigh-in by the bucketload. Strangely, perhaps, I’ve always found this a reassuring thought as it makes life an adventure to be won. It’s always gladdening, therefore, to find one of those precious little delectations that put a skip in the day. Such a delight, well for me at least and hopefully for you too, is the Bonzo Dog Band’s short film The Adventures of the Son of Exploding Sausage from 1969 or thereabouts. This little vintage piece of Bonzology turns up now and again like some long lost friend, but usually disappears with the speed of a unauthorized clip of Prince getting his groove on.

I have loved the Bonzos since being smitten by their presence on Python-forerunner series Do Not Adjust Your Set when a very young thing, and was genuinely more disappointed by the news of their disbandment than by the break-up of The Beatles, or the retirement of Ziggy Stardust or the demise of The Young Ones after only two series. Why this should be has everything to do with the sheer pleasure to be found in their music—their love of novelty tunes, their ability to pastiche pop and an unruly genius for original and unforgettable songs. It is as if The Goons, Monty Python and The Beatles had formed a band.
 
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The Adventures of the Son of Exploding Sausage is like the Holy Grail of Bonzo clips. It’s their take or version or whatever you want to call it of the Fab Four’s Magical Mystery Tour (which, of course, the Bonzos are in themselves, singing “Death Cab for Cutie” in the strip club scene), where similarly not very much happens, other than a trip out to the country, a visit to a farm, a meeting with some children, a game of football and a performance of the songs—“Rockaliser Baby,” “We are Normal” and “Quiet Walks and Summer Talks.” It’s a bit like the 1960s as a film—indulgent, fun, bubbly and rather messy.

This won’t be to everybody’s taste, but then again, why should it be? If you know it, you’ll enjoy it. If you don’t, why not give it a try?
 

 
Bonzos bonus clip at the Plumpton Jazz & Blues Festival, 1969, after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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06.19.2015
09:31 am
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The Bonzo Doo-Dah ‘Mad Man’: The selected adverts of Vivian Stanshall
12.16.2013
05:14 pm
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In those later days when Bonzo Dog Band frontman Vivian Stanshall was short of a bark, a pen, a duck, or a round, he would offer his more-than-capable services to advertising companies, suggesting delightfully creative, entertaining and memorable ads, which he would script, voice and occasionally appear in. The results were usually pleasing, though I have to admit sometimes feeling an occasional disquiet over the reworking of a favorite Bonzo/Stanshall song, which often neared musical heresy. But then I’d think, why be a grinch, and really shouldn’t the ginger genius make some well-deserved money from his past work?

And Vivian certainly did make money from these adverts, some of which (the pay for his Ruddles ad, for example) he put towards recording new songs—the inspiration being Orson Welles, who paid for his movies through ads for cheap wine and frozen peas.

Some ads, like the those by film director Tony Kaye, immediately become works of art, and certainly Stanshall’s best commercials deserve to be considered so—his ad for Ruddles beer, for example, is a work of genuine brilliance. It was inspired by Sir Henry at Rawlinson End and features a disguised Dawn French as Sir Henry, and Stanshall as narrator who recites the following poem:

Malcolm the Porcupine went to see if a moon of green cheese would float

He exhaled a spray of ‘will you go away’

To the land where the hoppity oats

He brewed humpty of Ruddles

Which he dumpty in puddles

And licked up whenever it snowed

In final conclusion, ‘twas only illusion,

Malcolm Porcupine said ‘I’LL BE BLOWED’




Commencing his doodles

With oodles of noodles

From soup of a green green hue
,
Sir Cuthbert first faltered
,
Nonplussed, altered
,
Then called for his favourite brew



Rolling an eyeball for kicks

Is somewhere between and betwixt

But feared overbite

Or the gift of hindsight

But not a patch on a Ruddles at six

In some respects making adverts was an ideal earner for Stanshall, as his alcoholism had wreaked havoc with his health, and limited his ability to remain focused and reliable—he wasn’t exactly “reliable” on the Ruddles shoot, either, but the ad agency were so keen on working with the great man that they indulged his occasional lapses.

Stanshall’s other ads usually reworked his songs to differing comic effect—the excellent ”Terry Keeps His Cips On” for Toshiba, and everyone’s favorite “Mister Slater’s Parrot” for Cadbury’s Cream Egg. Though it was Stanshall’s collaboration with Supermarionation genius, Gerry Anderson, the man behind Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds, which used the song “The Big Shot” for Tennent’s Pilsner that captured something of the old Bonzo zaniness.
 

Ruddles Real Ale: ‘Are you ready for a Ruddles?’
 
More Vivian Stanshall ads after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.16.2013
05:14 pm
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Anarchy and Surrealism in Belgium: The Bonzo Dog Band, live at the Bilzen Jazz Festival, 1969
06.29.2013
12:31 pm
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For fans of The Bonzo Dog Band, it doesn’t get much better than this outlandish performance shot live at the Jazz Bilzen festival in Belgium on August 22, 1969.

Well, actually had the cameras been pointed at the right place at the right times… Eventually, though, the cameramen do figure it out.

It starts off with an extended interview with Neil Innes.

Set list:

Big Shot
You Done My Brain In
Hello Mabel
I’m The Urban Spaceman
Quiet Talks and Summer Walks
I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles
In The Canyons of Your Mind
Trouser Press

I’ve been conducting an interview over email with Neil Innes about his recently released Le Duck’s Box Set collecting his Innes Book of Records-era output that will be published on Dangerous Minds soon.

In the meantime, enjoy this wild video of the Bonzos in all their glory. Imagine someone doing something like this onstage today.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Neil Innes, the ‘Seventh Pytohon’: How Sweet to Be an Idiot

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.29.2013
12:31 pm
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Neil Innes: ‘Urban Spaceman’ revisited

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Neil Innes performs two of the quickest versions of his hit song “Urban Spaceman”.

The first is accompanied by “Testing” and is taken from Late Night Line-Up - a kind of late night BBC arts show that kicked-off in the 1960s and was revived in the 1980s. The second is from the brilliant series Rutland Weekend Television, which spawned The Rutles.

Innes is a favorite at DM, for his brilliant musical talents and his incredible back catalog as Bonzo, Python, Rutle and Book of Records. Like the dear olde Ginger Geezer, he is one of the few artists I return to with an obsessional passion. Indeed, m’colleague Richard and I have had phases when we’ve played nothing but the Bonzos for weeks on end.

My earliest memory of “Urban Spaceman” is looped to clips of playing space walks and moon landings with my brother on summer-lit lawns, at my grandparents’ house. Of wearing cardboard space helmets given away free with tasty fruit pastilles called Jelly Tots, and watching the Bonzos on Do Not Adjust Your Set. It was also the first time I learned the lyrics to a song, and became fascinated with its meaning. Who was this “Urban Spaceman”? And why didn’t he exist?

Later, in the 1970s, Innes starred, wrote and performed 3 series of The Innes Book of Records, one TV’s truly brilliant and original shows. Sadly, the BBC has been loathe to rescreen or even release this classic piece of musical culture since. But thankfully there is a petition up-and-running to get the Beeb to pull its finger out and do something useful about it ASAP. So, if like me, you want to see Neil Innes’ genius show, then please click here and sign the petition. Thank you!
 

 
More from the fabulous Neil plus bonus clip of when a Bonzo met The Beatles, after the jump…
 
With thanks to NellyM
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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08.22.2012
07:45 pm
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The Bonzo Dog Band: Rare and Complete version of ‘The Adventures of the Son of Exploding Sausage’

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For Bonzo Dog fans, this is the equivalent of finding the Holy Grail. The original edit and soundtrack of The Adventures of the Son of Exploding Sausage - the rarely seen Bonzo Dog Band film from 1969. It’s the Bonzo’s own Magical Mystery Tour (yes, I know they were in that), a film with no real story, just a day-in-the-countryside, with some children and a farm. You’d probably get arrested for trying something like that now… Here’s how the BFI database describes it:

The Bonzo Dog Band drive into the country in a truck, unload their equipment in some woods only to find some of it taken away by some children. They eat and play at a party, and the Bonzos play a number of instrumentals in a stable yard, including `Rockaliser Baby’, `We are Normal’ and `Quiet Walks and Summer Talks’. At the end they are driven away in a white car. Note: No words are sung. Featured alongside the Bonzo Dog Band are the children Amanda, Jennifer and Ashley Lees, Edward Roebuck, and Olivia Smith.

Clips from this film have been on YouTube over the years, usually with “words sung”, but this original instrumental soundtrack is fantastic, which as one comment on YouTube says:

‘Not just a funky old time jazz band. They give early Pink Floyd a run for their money here.’

Ah, tis true. So, if you like Vivian, Neil and co. (and why not?), do make yourself some tea and scones, and settle down and enjoy this lovely trip to the delightful world of The Bonzo Dog Band.
 

 
Bonus clips of The Bonzos, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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08.18.2012
05:32 pm
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Bonzo Dog Band: ‘Death Cab For Cutie’, ‘Head Ballet’ and more…
08.14.2010
05:20 am
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The brilliance of Bonzo Dog Band. Real genius never gets old. I remember as a teenybopper watching Magical Mystery Tour for the first time and thinking how dull it was until Vivian and the boys made their appearance and suddenly the movie became electric, exotic and dangerous.

Enjoy. Thank me later.

 
More of the Bonzos after the jump…

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Posted by Marc Campbell
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08.14.2010
05:20 am
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Vivian Stanshall: The Ginger Geezer
04.29.2010
10:16 pm
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Last night when I stumbled across the Bob Dylan/Bette Midler bootleg on Vimeo, I saw that the poster, dagb (that’s all I know about him and I suspect he would like to keep it that way) had also uploaded One Man’s Week, the 1975 documentary about the late great British eccentric and Bonzo Dog Doo Dah band singer, Vivian Stanshall. Erudite—and alcoholic—Vivian is interviewed and seen working on his African-influenced album Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead.

If you’re a Bonzos fan, this is a little bit of heaven, I promise you.
 

 
For a quick overview of who Stanshall was and why you should care, I suggest watching this, first:
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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04.29.2010
10:16 pm
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